African Pear Wood incense burner

I was given a small piece of thirty year old African Pear Wood. That was the start of my problems.Sorry bout photo quality pictures from mobile phone.

I glued it to a sacrificial piece of scrap wood and started to turn. I stopped the lathe and sharpened the chisels. this stuff is hard as hell. A Sorby parting tool blunted in 4 minutes. Sharpened again and kept going.

The eventual result is the incense burner shown. It is 2 1/2 inches wide and 2 3/4 inches high, and was sanded to 80 grit and wiped with liquid paraffin. It is a bitch to turn, the first time and the last.